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Ringing in the New Year With Natural Disaster Cleanup

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It’s safe to say it wasn’t the best start to a new year for some parts of the United States.

The Northeast continues to dig out with trucks still hauling away snow that fell more than eight days ago. Though many businesses were affected by the storm, it was recently reported that the post-Christmas blizzard cost retailers a whopping $1 billion. That’s according to shopper traffic analysis company, ShopperTrak. The following are their findings:

  • On Dec. 26 total U.S. foot traffic was 11.2% below what it would have been expected if the blizzard had not hit the Northeast.
  • Northeast region foot traffic fell 6.1% on Dec. 26 while the other three regions (Midwest, South, West) had an average gain of 38.6% versus last year.
  • On Dec. 27 total U.S. foot traffic was 13.9% below expectations had the blizzard not hit the Northeast.
  • Northeast region foot traffic fell 42.9% on Dec. 27 compared to 2009, while the other regions averaged a 13.0% gain.
  • Preliminary GAFO retail sales estimates for Dec. 26 and 27 combined are roughly $10 billion. Assuming a conservative 10% sales impact nationally for the blizzard, roughly $1 billion of retail spending was postponed during the two day period.

It’s not only retailers that were financially impacted by the monstrous storm; some estimates say the airline industry could see blizzard-related costs upwards of $150 million.

At least 6,000 flights, mostly in and out of New York City-area airports, were canceled because of the storm, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Those disruptions, along with the need to bring back planes that had been moved in anticipation of the blizzard and other factors, could cost airlines between $100 million and $150 million, estimates Helane Becker, an airline analyst at Dahlman Rose.

In the West, Californians were hit with heavy rains and winds that caused flooding through the Los Angeles area, the power of which can be seen in this video of Loma Linda, California on December 22.

It was reported that rains dumped more than half the year’s normal rainfall in many California regions, and areas of Los Angeles recorded almost 22 inches of rain. The area continues to assess damage and clean up costs.

And lastly, on New Year’s Eve, a deadly tornado outbreak swept across Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois. The Weather Channel says there were 30 reported tornadoes, with five of the twisters earning an EF3 rating. Seven people were killed during the storms, making it the second deadliest New Year’s Eve for tornadoes.

Is this a sign for what’s to come in 2011 or merely a dramatic end to a year filled with unprecedented natural disasters?

How Carjackers Celebrate New Year’s

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By stealing your car, of course. In fact, last year, it was the holiday on which you were most likely to get your auto stolen.

Here’s the top ten (from Insurance Networking News)

The holidays ranked by number of thefts reported to the National Crime Information Center in 2009 were:

New Year’s Day — 2,760

Halloween — 2,325

Independence Day — 2,207

Memorial Day — 2,207

President’s Day — 2,204

Labor Day — 2,202

New Year’s Eve — 2,189

Valentine’s Day — 2,090

Christmas Eve — 1,851

Thanksgiving — 1,620

Christmas Day — 1,336

It’s nice to see that even most car thieves will not steal your car on Christmas. ‘Tis the season and all.

But as 2011 rolls in, be sure to lock your doors.

Managing Risk at the North Pole

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It looks like Santa has been busy trying to improve his risk management this year. There are a lot of threats and just like all companies, Santa’s Workshop is not immune to new-age concerns. Given his giant list of who is naughty and who is nice, for example, he fears that a security breach that exposes his billions of person records could bring crippling lawsuits.

Santa Claus has announced the appointment of a Christmas Risk Officer (CRO) as part of a coordinated plan to maintain resilience at Grotto SE, the North Pole based toy manufacturing plant, as well as Claus’ flying sledge-based global distribution facility.

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The new CRO, Mrs Santa Claus, is believed to be unhappy about the appointment but accepts that someone has to do it if clients’ confidence in Christmas is to be retained.

Grotto insiders told lloyds.com that the move to appoint a CRO was prompted by the Icelandic ash cloud that caused massive business interruption problems earlier this year, particularly for North European businesses. Sources also say that, in line with other big company CEOs, Santa Claus is also increasingly concerned about linked risks to do with brand and reputation, as well data security.

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Hopefully this, as well as other new risk management initiatives from the Clauses, will help ensure you all get your toys, TVs and tubesocks this year.

Happy holidays.

Corporate Malfeasance From Enron to Lehman

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The world has seen its share of bad business ethics ever since citizens began offering goods or services for a stipend. The effects of such wrongdoings have been magnified, however, as businesses have prospered and the greed of some has grown. Greed which can sometimes drive people to forget their morals. Some may think of Lehman Brothers as the the worst case of corporate malfeasance to ever rock the business world, while others may claim it was Enron.

One website has published what it claims are the “10 Great Moments in Corporate Malfeasance.” I’m not so sure the word “great” aptly describes these 10 moments. I would guess “worst” or “reputation-ruining” would be more appropriate. Nevertheless, after introducing the piece with the Enron scandal, the site says “what follows are 10 more examples of what a person might do if given the chance to make more money.”

It lists pharmaceutical maker Roche (#10) as refusing to sell its HIV drug Fuzeon at $18,000 (what it was valued at by South Korean health officials) as opposed to $25,000. Even though the drug maker would still make a hefty profit, it refused to sell at the discounted price with the head of Roche’s Korean division claiming, “We are not in the business to save lives, but to make money. Saving lives is not our business.” That’s one people won’t soon forget.

WellPoint (#7) didn’t fair so well in the spotlight after the U.S. health care debate raged this year. It was found that the insurance company was severely abusing recission (the policy of finding ways to cancel insurance contracts). Whose contracts were they canceling?

Women who were diagnosed with breast cancer.

WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators. Once the women were singled out, they say, the insurer then canceled their policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information. WellPoint declined to comment on the women’s specific cases without a signed waiver from them, citing privacy laws.

Getting to what most people think of when they think “corporate malfeasance,” the list mentions Goldman Sachs (#5) and its “doomed-to-fail” fund.

Investment banking house Goldman Sachs created Abacus 2007-ACI, a fund of mortgages it sold to investors. What Goldman didn’t tell Abacus fund investors was that the mortgages they were betting would succeed had been handpicked by a favorite Goldman investor to actually lose.

That investor was John Paulson, who eventually made $1 billion from the fund.

IBM (#1) and its tech support garnered the unattractive top spot on the list. The tech giant sold some of its earliest model computers to Nazi Germany, with its founder, Thomas Watson, receiving the highest honor the country could bestow upon non-Germans, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle.

IBM admits that the company’s computers were used to carry out the logistics of the Holocaust, but denies awareness of this use at the time.

Thankfully, there are organizations in place that act as watchdogs for major corporations. CorpWatch is a nonprofit that works to expose corporate malfeasance and “advocate for multinational corporate accountability and transparency.” And probably more well-known is Corporate Accountability International, an organization that has fought against abusive corporations for more than 30 years. They have an impressive track record; from the infant formula campaign of the late 70s and early 80s to the nuclear weaponmaker’s campaign that spanned a decade, they work to bring to light wrongdoings of big businesses. Something Lehman and Enron could have used.

We are a capitalist society, which is only wrong when greed comes before humanity.